Dominique Crenn of Atelier Crenn and Petit Crennin San Francisco has been named The World's Best Female Chef 2016. She will be honoured at The World's 50 Best Restaurants awards ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street in New York on June 13th.
The French-born chef's flagship restaurant in the city's Cow Hollow district has gained huge critical acclaim since opening in 2011, with Crenn giving full expression to her philosophy of 'poetic culinaria'. The highly artistic menus are written as poems, with both the food and verses changing seasonally, while the minimalist décor includes select pieces of artwork painted by the chef's father. Last year the 51-year-old added a second more casual destination, Petit Crenn, to her portfolio as a more rustic foil to her ultra-refined first restaurant.
William Drew, Group Editor of The World's 50 Best Restaurants, said, "We are proud and excited to announce Dominique Crenn as this year's World's Best Female Chef, celebrating her many achievements. Dominique is a distinguished and highly impressive chef, having already accomplished many firsts as a female cook, paving the way for future generations. Dominique's passion for local produce, sustainability and dedication to the profession make her the perfect recipient of this award."
Crenn responded to the news of the accolade by saying "It is a great honor to be chosen as The World's Best Female Chef 2016 by my peers and the people I've had the pleasure to cook for. I've been inspired by many of the past winners of this award and so it's a great pleasure to join their ranks and to hopefully motivate cooks around the world to work hard, be creative and achieve great things. I am proud to share this award with my chef family, the teams at Atelier Crenn and Petit Crenn, without whom this accolade would not be possible."
The World's Best Female Chef programme is designed to shine a light on a rarefied family of extraordinary female chefs. The award celebrates the work of a woman whose cooking most impresses the world's toughest critics and most venerated chefs, almost 1,000 of whom voted in this category. As a winner of The World's Best Female Chef Award, Dominique Crenn joins a group of exceptionally talented chefs including luminaries Helena Rizzo of Brazilian restaurant Mani, Elena Arzak of Spain's Arzak, Anne-Sophie Pic of Maison Pic in France, Nadia Santini of Dal Pescatore in the Italian countryside and last year's winner, Hélène Darroze of London's Hélène Darroze at The Connaught and Hélène Darroze in Paris.
Find out more about the whole competition here.